Constructing the Galley, and That Foremast Fife Rail
As noted earlier in this thread, after Cruise I, the DTM expedition commander obtained permission from DTM to construct a new galley for the crew forward of the foremast over the former forward cargo hatch. The primary reason was to move another significant chunk of iron (the galley stove) as far away from the magnetic instruments as practicable.
From the DTM field reports, the work conducted on the ship between Cruises I and II included the following:
"the fore-hatch coamings were trimmed off; the hatchway was filled in and was decked over, and a new galley, about 7 feet by 14 feet, was built over the hatchway;"
As modeled thus far, the forward hatch has already been decked over.
The area where the new galley cabin will be located. The forward hatch has already been decked over. (Blender)
There was some question at first about the size of the galley, utilizing the dimensions provided in the field report. They seemed to result in a footprint that didn't agree with the available photos of the cabin. For example, the photo following suggests that the new galley cabin was basically the same width as the forecastle cabin, which was about 14.5 feet wide between outside walls. When comparing proportional distance between the front and back walls of the galley to those of the forecastle cabin, I came up with about 7.25 feet between the outside surfaces of the front and back walls of the galley. I finally concluded that the expedition commander probably was using approximate numbers provided by the shipyard, since the actual numbers were reasonably close to those reported.
The new galley can be seen to the far left. Note that its port wall is visually in line with the forecastle cabin's wall.
(Photo courtesy of Carnegie Science Library, c. 1906)
The galley cabin had a single sliding door to port, similar to the forecastle cabin's, and a single swing-in window to starboard. In all other respects, the cabin construction and finishing were identical to the other two cabins. During fair weather, photos showed that the door was always open to provide much needed ventilation.
The galley cabin, port and aft walls in view.
The galley cabin with the starboard and forward walls in view. The roof access was to reposition the stove chimney. (Blender)
Unlike the original galley stove in the forecastle cabin, with its smoke stack sticking straight up in front of the magnetic instrument bridge, the crew and shipyard worked together to create a custom stack that could be repositioned, depending on the direction of the wind, in order to minimize smoke affecting the operations on the bridge when collecting magnetic data. This was in the form of a smoke stack constructed in a Z-shape with a diffuser that helped prevent spray and rain from entering the stack pipe. The hatch in the galley roof provided access in order to reposition the stack as necessary to ensure the smoke was discharged downwind regardless of the heading of the ship. Photos indicate this was a cobbled-together affair, went through several design iterations, and by the end of the charter period, the stack was quite banged up and dented.
This is a photo of probably the third iteration of the galley smoke stack with the diffuser removed (lying underneath the pipe).
This photo also suggests that, for the third cruise, the cabin roofs may have been painted a darker color,
since the ship spent most of its time in the far north Pacific during the Fall and early Winter of 1908.
(Courtesy of the Carnegie Science Library, c. 1908)
The assembled galley smoke stack. The legs and support pads moved with the horizontal pipe to support it. (Blender)
The complete galley cabin, as it appeared for Cruise III, 1907/1908. (Blender)
The Foremast Fife Rails
One unresolved problem I ran into was the nature of the assumed fife rails around the base of the foremast, which was located just forward of the forecastle cabin, and thus ended up between the forecastle cabin and the new galley cabin. From photos, it is pretty clear that the various downhauls that were belayed at the base of the foremast were not tied off at a belaying ring attached to the mast. While this feature was common in this era, the lines would have angled inward toward the mast at the bottom. This was never evident in any of the photos of the ship from any angle. Thus I assume there was a more-or-less traditional fife rail at the mast base.
A photo looking aft toward the foremast, showing the run of all the downhauls/halyards toward the pin rails.
(Courtesy of the Carnegie Science Library, c. 1907–1908)
Even the Berger plans I have used for constructing the majority of the ship show a three-sided fife rail surrounding the base of the mast. However, as reconstructed, there is no room or access for a fife rail in this location. And, sadly, this is the one place on the ship that was never photographed. I even contacted Matthew Turner's granddaughter, who is the conservator of everything Matthew Turner, and she has no photos of this area of the ship. All that the Berger plans show is this:
Cropped view of the G.C. Berger plans of Galilee showing the supposed original arrangement around the foremast and its fife rails.
Notice how the aft ends of the fife rails appear to have been inserted into the front wall of the cabin. (Plan source: SFMNHP)
I attempted to model the fife rail with reference to the Berger plans, and this is what they look like, taking into account the actual interference offered by the forecastle cabin:
The modeling of the fife rails included some embellishments that were consistent with rest of the ship's appearance.
Because of the sliding door just aft of the mast, there was no way that the fife rails could have been attached to the forward wall of the forecastle cabin! (Blender)
This is what the fife rail arrangement currently looks like after adding the galley cabin.
The mast boot was designed after consultation with a SFMNHP shipwright.
(Blender)
With the galley cabin in place, access to the forward belaying pins would have been very difficult. And if the lines on the opposite side of the fife rail had to be handled, the crewman would have had to run all the way around the galley to get to the opposite pinrail (unless he were skinny).
Comments?
The only "cabin" left is the ship's head (water closet/WC), which will be addressed in the next post.
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CDR_Ret ·
